Self-administered fingernail manicure

ABSTRACT

A self-administered manicure in which a finger of one hand is projected through a triangular opening bounded by a base and opposite sides of a storage bottle of polish and like fluids so as to steady the bottle in an erect condition on a support surface, and the other hand attends to the brush application of polish on the fingernails of the bottle-steadying hand.

[0001] The present invention relates generally to improvements in manicuring fingernails, the improvements more particularly facilitating a self-administered, as in a home or like environment, polishing and application of other fingernail adorning fluids.

EXAMPLE OF THE PRIOR ART

[0002] Typically, in a salon a manicurist will, in addition to shaping and filing preparation will also polish a patron's fingernails. At home, the preparation might be desired to be dispensed with, but the polishing of the fingernails still often requires the assistance of another, since one hand has to attend to the polishing chore and the other holding and steadying the polish bottle, and this latter chore does not favorably position the fingernails for polishing to enable the manicure to be readily self-administered. As a solution to freeing a hand of the bottle-holding chore, use is made of a device which both holds the bottle and positions the fingernails for polishing and fluid-covering treatment, one such device being illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,935 for Fingernail-Polishing Article of Manufacture issued to Howard Sussman on Mar. 30, 1982. In the '935 patent and all other known patents, the construction providing the two functions of steadying the polish bottle and also supporting the hand to be manicured is complicated by the requirement of embodying degrees of movement in the hand support to in turn allow proper application of the polish, top coat, sealer and like fluids.

[0003] Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an associated device implementing the method of achieving a self-administered manicure overcoming the foregoing and other shortcomings of the prior art.

[0004] More particularly, it is an object in a manicuring method to position, so as to be accessible to the fingernail-polishing hand, the other hand flat on a support surface, rather than grasped about a nail polish bottle, and to use the flat orientation of the supported hand to also steady the nail polish bottle, all as will be better understood as the description proceeds.

[0005] The description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings should not be construed as limiting the invention to the example shown and described, because those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains will be able to devise other forms thereof within the ambit of the appended claims.

[0006]FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of bottled fingernail-decorating fluids;

[0007]FIG. 2 is a side elevational view thereof; and

[0008]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a self-administered manicure in accordance with the present invention.

[0009] As known from common experience, in administering a fingernail-polishing manicure the fluids used, such as polish, top coat, and the like are removed by brush from a bottle which is in a hand grasp so as to be maintained upright and stable in position, and the brushing in a self-administered manicure done with the other hand. Thus, since the fingernails being polished are those on fingers grasped about the bottle, these fingernails are not particularly favorably positioned for contact by the fluid polish-applying brush.

[0010] As a remedy to the dilemma noted, use is made of a bottle 10 of glass construction material having a horizontally oriented base 12 fused or adhesively secured, at opposite ends 14 and 16, to angularly oriented left 18 and right 20 sides in criss-crossing relation, as at 32, which cooperate to bound a triangular opening 24 adapted in use, as illustrated in FIG. 3, to receive in projected relation therethrough a downward pressure-applying finger 26 of one hand 28, preferably the pointing finger of an individual 30 self-administering a polishing manicure. Each bottle side 18, 20 is covered by a cap 32 with an extending wand and brush construction 34 threadably engaged, as at 36, about the top opening 38 and alternately dipped into and removed from the fluid compartments of the sides 18, 20 in which there are supplies of fingernail-decorating fluids 40 such as polish, top coat, nail hardeners or the like.

[0011] The bottle 10 is, as illustrated in FIG. 3, worn as instructed in accordance with the present invention in what aptly can be characterized in a ring positioned relation on the finger 26, in which the said and the other fingers, individually and collectively designated 26 as are also the fingernails 42, are favorably positioned for brushing contact on a support surface 44 by the brush 34 held in the other hand 46 of the individual 30. When the manicure of the fingernails 42 on one hand 28 is completed, the hands 28 and 46 are reversed and the manicure completed for the fingernails 42 of the other hand. In the manner described, and using the bottle 10 as described, a manicure is readily self-administered by the individual 30 without the assistance of another individual.

[0012] While the manicure bottle for practicing the within inventive method, as well as said method herein shown and disclosed in detail is fully capable of attaining the objects and providing the advantages hereinbefore stated, it is to be understood that it is merely illustrative of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention and that no limitations are intended to the detail of construction or design herein shown other than as defined in the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. In administering a fingernail manicure, a method of simultaneously maintaining a bottle source of supply of fingernail-decorating fluids in position for use while removing said fluids for brush application to fingernails comprising the step of: A. using a fluid-filled bottle construction consisting of a horizontally oriented base and crossing opposite angularly oriented sides cooperating to bound a triangular opening therein; B. wearing said bottle in a ring positioned relation on a finger of a first hand projected through said triangular opening; C. exerting a downward pressure with said projected finger on said bottle base against a support surface so as to maintain said bottle in an upright condition; D. brushing fluid removed from said bottle using a second hand onto fingernails of said first hand; and E. repeating steps B-D reversing the use of said first and second hands; whereby a manicure is self-administered without the assistance of another individual.
 2. For use in a fingernail-polishing manicure, a glass bottle comprising a horizontally oriented base, and hollow left and right angularly oriented sides connected to extend from said base in criss-crossing relation to each other, said sides cooperating with said base to bound a triangular opening, whereby in use a downward pressure exerted upon said base by a finger projected through said triangular opening is effective to hold said bottle erect. 